XXVII.

ing it more than probable that I should not be albe long to hold my position within the limits of the State.

General Beauregard telegraphed for De Clouet's regiment, which I declined to send on the ground that I did not wish it to quit the soil of Louisiana.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

L. LOVELL,

Major-General, Commanding.

ORDERS,
HDQRS. LOUISIANA MILITIA, ADJT. GENERAL'T OFFICE, No. 582.
Tangipahoa, May 12, 1863.

Major General John L. Lewis, commanding State Militia, will report himself at Opelousas, La., for duty as soon as his health will permit.

By order of Thos. O. Moore, Governor and commander-in-chief:

M. GRIVOT,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

CORINTH, MISS., May 13, 1863.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General:

I send following dispatch, received from Hon. P. Soule, for information and consideration of War Department:

We are without a word of intelligence from either State or Confederate States Government. Our public men, our officials, have all left in shameful haste when they heard the enemy were approaching. They took away with them such remnants of treasure as still remained in their possession or under their control, and left us nothing wherewith to give bread to famished soldiers or to the crews of the boats that had shown any resistance to the enemy. Large amounts of property abandoned by them without a word of instruction to anybody might have been saved, had some of the revenues they carried out been left in the hands of some foreign merchant to be disposed as the necessities which were so likely to arise might demand. Are we to be left thus unattended to, even thought of, with an increasing crowd of supplicants asking for their pay, or at least a portion of it, and actually starving with their families? The crew of the McRae is almost entire---

We cannot hope for a change in our deplorable condition unless some naval scheme be devised to rid us to the cannon and mortars that threaten us incessantly from the river; and if any such scheme is to be attempted the necessity of retaining such men must be obvious. Will the Government at Richmond undertake to free us in the river? That is all we ask against any force. On land we would ask no assistance from without. But let us have some token of recognition from our rulers, for otherwise we are left adrift, and we will now look to what energy and devotion is being fostered up in every true breast. Let us have some means to turn chances, possible chances, to advantage, and at the same time the wherewith to afford assistance to our soldiers and crews, otherwise we are exposed to see them enlist under the exactions of starvation in the ranks of the enemy, who offer for volunteers a bounty of $100, besides a liberal pay. In God's name, general, let this go to Richmond, and at least give us yourself, if you cannot obtain from the Government, a word of encouragement.

PIERE SOULE.

G. T. BEAUREGARD.